A Legionnaire's Tale
by bosscascade
Summary: Sic Parvis Magna: "Greatness from small beginnings." This is the story of a legionnaire who by chance would be drafted into the ranks of the Frumentarri. Throughout his mission his actions would play pivotal role in the upcoming Second Battle For Hoover Dam and beyond. This is a the story of Acentio, this is A Legionnaire's Tale...
1. Sic Parvis Magna

Author's note: This is my first fanfiction so any reviews are appreciated.

Disclaimer: I do not own nor claim to own Fallout NV or any of the character from it. Thank you Obsidian for making such a great game.

My name is Acentio, however names aren't important in the legion so I'm usually just referred to as explorer.

As a legionnaire explorer, it is my duty to scout out the Mojave to make the upcoming invasion easier. At the age of only 16 I had been promoted from recruit to an explorer in only a year of service due to my independence, loyalty, combat experience, and my pathfinding skills. It's been less than a year since my promotion but, I have already found success in my new role with my current mission being the exploration of the South East of the Mojave.

While exploring near Nipton I heard the familiar sounds of rifles going off. I climbed up the hill to look down. I pulled out my binoculars to see a battle between some NCR troops and legions. "Damn," I muttered to myself. The decanus had been mowed down in the first volley, with the remaining recruits pinned down in a crater.

"Those recruits are gonna get themselves killed without a leader, I better go help them." I thought to myself.

I pulled a spear out and took my gladius in my other hand and charged down the hill. I threw my spear and nailed an NCR soldier in the shoulder. The soldier fell down seemingly dead, that left 3 more soldiers and officer to go. I dived down into the crater with the other legionnaires as bullets rained down next to me.

"Aye true to Caesar." A recruit said nervously.

I looked back, 3 legionnaires were remaining. The decanius and another 2 legionnaires had already been killed.

I held up my hand and said, "No need to be formal, we need to kill those NCR soldiers before reinforcements come."

Another shaking legionnaire said panicky, "But, but how? As soon as we show ourselves those troops will kill us!"

I scolded the legionnaire for cowardliness and then thought to myself for a minute before coming up with a plan.

"Those NCR soldiers are just recruits too, if we can distract them we will be able to rush out and kill them. You." I looked to a legionnaire at my right. "Take this rock and at my signal throw it and yell grenade, I'll throw another spear at the officer while the rest of you rush the troopers."

He nodded back at me.

I breathed heavily, the seconds felt like hour. I waited for the perfect moment to strike. Bullets continued to rain down on us. And then I heard it, the familiar click of a rifle running out of ammo.

"Now!" I yelled.

'Grenade out!" The legionnaire yelled.

The NCR troops ducked for cover from the "grenade" while the more experienced officer tried to yell that it was just a ruse, but my spear had hit him in the neck before he could do that. The other three legionaries had attacked their targets. Two of the legionaries killed the troopers with only minor injuries, unfortunately, an NCR soldier had recovered enough to fire his gun. The legionary fell but, gave the soldier a deep slash in the process and they both fell dead in the sand.

One of the remaining legionaries began celebrating. "We did it! We-" He was cut off by his head exploding.

"WHAT TH-."

"RANGERS!" The legionary I gave the rock to earlier pointed to a ranger holding a grenade rifle. I couldn't see the ranger who blew up the other legionnaires head, but I knew if the grenade launcher wouldn't kill us the sniper would.

The ranger fired his grenade launcher.

The explosion knocked me off my feet, sand, and rocks flying around me. I fell in the crater and it all went dark.

I began to wake up in a daze, "My head is killing me. What happened?" I said to myself.

It felt like there was a layer of sand on top of me. I looked down at myself. I was actually was covered in sand. I shook it off and assessed the situation with my equipment. My armour was torn from the grenade but, it's still useable. I didn't see my weapons, I guessed they were either scattered in the explosion or looted by the rangers. I looked back up to see that I was knocked back into the crater. I climbed out and saw all the corpses from the battle are still there. Both of the surviving legionaries had been killed in the explosion.

"The rangers must have been in a rush when they ambushed us." I thought to myself. "Looks like they left most of our equipment behind."

After a few minutes of searching, I found all the useable equipment left behind. A 9mm pistol with 20 extra rounds plus the clip from the officer, some food and water, my antivenom, some bitter drink, my three spears, some machetes from the recruits, and most importantly my gladius Gaius. I smiled to myself, I never remembered why I choose that name. An off-hand name in a history book or something. I decided against the machetes as I already had Gaius. As for the pistol, I decide to take it, most legionnaires don't use technology and in principle, I agree. However, as an explorer, you are trained to use what you find. I noticed a faint scent of smoke in the air, I looked up and my suspicions were confirmed. There were pillars of smoke in the distance, it looked like the origin was Nipton. The massive clouds of smoke could only mean one thing, Nipton was burning and as an explorer, it was my job to investigate.

While walking down the road I came across a car with an intact mirror. I looked at myself. My hazel eyes looked back. Dried blood and sand caked my skin. I had always been browner than most combined with the inevitable sun tan from wandering the Mojave it was no surprise my skin was fairly bronze. While knowledge of tribal origins was strictly forbidden in the legion my mother had always sneaked information to me about normally forbidden knowledge like that. She was told me that she originated from a tribe called the Navajo before the legion incorporated them. I smiled thinking back on that, I never knew how she didn't get caught but, part of me is happy she did tell me. My black hair had the dust from the battle all over it. I sighed as the nearest non-irradiated large water source was rather far away.

"Legion scum die!" A crowd of Vipers ran from a nearby police station and began to fire.

I ducked behind the car, fortunately, the engine had already been scavenged so I don't have to worry about my cover becoming an atomic bomb. I peeked over the car and fired with my 9mm. The idiots weren't wearing any helmets so even my crappy 9mm could kill them easily. I nailed a charging Viper with a bat in the head who fell over in the sand, seemingly dead. I switched over to another Viper and fired again and hit her in the knee. She fell over screaming. A Viper with a golf club managed to get to past my cover and swung. I expertly dodged and slashed my gladius at his throat. It hit home and viper fell to the ground holding his bleeding throat, another stab and he was dead. The last Viper panicked and ran into the police station. As for the women Viper from earlier and ended her with a stab through the heart.

"Hmph, women on the battlefield, outsiders are weird." I mumbled to myself.

I decide to clear out the police station, better to not leave enemies behind me. I noticed a TNT stick on the ground and smiled to myself, decide that my entrance would go off with a bang.

II went against the wall and lite my TNT. I knocked the door open and threw the TNT in.

The Vipers inside screamed "GRENADE!".

I heard the explosion and stabbed the Viper closest to me, I brought Gaius back up and slashed the next Viper. By that time the other Vipers recovered enough to start firing back. I dived behind a desk right before the bullets started to fly. I fired my 9mm and shot a viper in a padded vest using a varmint rifle through the neck, killing him instantly. The last Viper was the one from outside, he wore metal armour and had a caravan shotgun. He fired once but, the gun was in poor condition and didn't pierce the metal desk I was behind, only sending some metal shards around me which did little more than scratching me. The shotgun jammed before he could fire the second barrel. Thinking fast I picked up a varmint rifle from the dead Viper who I had stabbed at the door. I fired and the bullet pierced the visor of the motorcycle helmet of the viper with the shotgun. He dropped dead instantly. I walked over to the dead viper when I heard a scream coming from the hallway.

"DIE LEGION FUCK." said a crazy-eyed Viper with a spear.

I picked up the caravan shotgun from the dead metal armoured Viper and fired, spraying the screaming Viper with hot lead, killing her instantly. After checking to see if anyone else was alive I started the scavenge what I could.

After a few minutes of searching I looked over my loot. Four stimpacks, some healing powder, more food, a varmint rifle and some ammo for it, a hydra, and some caps. I used some healing power to help with the scratches from the desk shards. It would give me a bit of a headache but, I figured it would be worth it.

"Well," I said to myself. "Better continue to Nipton.

Less than an hour later and a few bandits on the road I made it Nipton and the situation was worse than I thought, or better in my case. Legions banners were scattered through the entrance, fires were burning throughout the town and men on crosses were scattered down the main street.

"HEY LEGION GUY!" I looked over to a powder ganger running excitedly towards me. "You can't kill me cause I won the lottery!"

I decide to ignore him, figuring that the legion who did this had a reason for leaving him alive. I walked down toward the town hall and saw the legionnaires who did this.

"Explorer." The legionnaire in charge waved to me to come over. He wore a hollowed out wolf head as a helmet and his armour was covered in bronze plates.

"I didn't expect to see another true to Caesar in this god forsaken town. I am Vulpes Inculta." Vulpes said coldly.

"I was investigating the smoke, I'm scouting the region." I responded quickly.

"Mmm. Just curious, what happened to your armour?

I gulped and began to tell the events from earlier today.

"Interesting" Vulpes smiled. "I could use someone like you."

"Someone like me?" I asked surprised.

"Yes you, I need someone intelligent and who knows the land. You are to continue scouting, but I want you to do more than that. Find allies, eliminate potential enemies such as the powder gangers, or use them to harass the NCR. In fact, right I have an officer at the prison, show him this mark and assist him. I will give you some leather armour so you can fit in better in the settlements. Keep your legion armour so that you can drop off information and resupply in legion camps, in fact, I will give you a new set of armour. Oh, and while you're at it spread the word of what you have seen here." He smiled as if he told some dark joke.

"Of course." I replied. I was nervous but, at the same time excited about my new job.

He smiled again and said "Good, now change and go. For now, you will act as any other adventure. Clear out caves, do side jobs, just remember your prime objective. You can even see what you can get from these burned out ruins. Just don't go in the town hall behind me, I left a surprise for any scavengers."

I watched as the legionaries left and began scavenging the town. I decide to heed Vulpes' warning to stay away from the townhall. I began to search the houses, the search was uneventful until I found one house with a robot in it.

I opened the door and heard what sounded like an engine in another section of the house. I took out Gaius and a 10mm I found in another house and peeked into another room.

"DIE!" A robotic voice yelled from the room.

A nearly dogged a green plasma bolt. I saw what looked to be a Mr. Gutsy bolted together out of scrap metal. I rushed to slash the robot.

"OW!" The robot yelled. My gladius hit it in the eye which broke it, however, the robot remained function. "You'll pay for that!" The robot yelled. It fired it's built-in flamethrower. Fortunately, because of its damaged eye, its accuracy was poor and I managed to dodge the worst of the blast, thou my explorer armour has a few new holes in it. Thinking fast I slashed the flamethrower cutting it off, leaving some black oily stains on the floor. Before the robot could respond I shot it in the engine controlling its jet and then stabbed its upper body. It's cheap frame offered little protection against my finely crafted gladius. Sparks began to fly from its wound setting the oil from the robots chopped of flamethrower ablaze. The robot screamed in agony and it fell the ground and "died". I stomped out the fire before the entire house could be burned down and sat down on the floor. Sweating from the rush of the battle and the heat from the flames.

"Whew." I wiped my forehead. "Who would've guessed some rouge Mr. Gutsy could be such a pain?"

My burns were minor so I only used some healing powder. I checked my supplies and saw that I still had 5 left. Than I continued scavenging the town.

Besides for a few mantises, the rest of the looting was uneventful until I stumbled across the general store. "Who the fucks there?" Asked an annoyed voice. I immediately figured I wasn't gonna like whoever the voice belonged to. "Oh great, more legion fuckers. You already broke my legs. What, you coming back to taunt me now?" The same guy asked.

"I frankly don't give a shit about you. You got to keep your life so shut up unless you want that to change." I replied coldly.

The powder ganger held up his hands and replied. "Fine, fine you don't have to get so offended."

I searched the general store. The only objects of interest were a super stimpack, a 9mm submachine gun in good condition, and some weapon repair kits. I went upstairs to change into the leather armour and went to leave the store.

"Man you didn't say nothin about changing. You coulda stayed down here to put on a show." The powder ganger said sarcastically.

I shot him a dirty stare and left.

I went outside and saw the sun was already starting to go down. I decided to put off the prison and find a safe place to sleep and sell some of my junk. I looked up a hill and saw the Mojave Outpost.

"Guess I better start there."


	2. Acta Non Verba

I started heading towards the Outpost, hoping to get there before the dark. I kept thinking about how I was going to act, being in the Legion doesn't do wonders for your social skills. While walking on the highway towards the Outpost I heard a familiar clicking sound.

I pulled out my binoculars and zoomed in on an underpass in the highway.

" _Ants,_ " I thought myself. " _I'm going to need more food, the pre-war rations I've been collecting doesn't have a lot of protein and I'm almost out of fresh meat. Ant meat is pretty easy to harvest too so I won't waste a lot of time anyway. Lucky judging by their colors they don't seem to be fire ants."_

Once I was close enough the ants noticed me and let out a screech. The larger soldier ants came first. I threw my three spears at their head's. All my throws were true and the soldiers fell dead. As for the last soldier, I decided to just shoot with my 10mm. The smaller worker ants I decided not to waste ammo and I killed them with Gaius easily.

" _Damn these creatures smell bad_." I thought sarcastically.

I pulled out my hunting knife and began to harvest the meat. The stench would have been unbearable if I had never done this before. The hard outer shell of the ant was easily split open by my knife and being as experienced as I was I was easily able to get the choice cuts.

I looked up to the sky. "I better hurry, the sun is almost down."

I ran up the hill towards the outpost. The office door was locked so I went to the cantina.

The place stunk of booze, drunk NCR soldiers and caravaners were littered throughout the joint.

" _How have we not beaten these pigs already?_ " I thought angrily. " _This would never be accepted in the Legion!_ "

I swallowed my pride and took a seat at the bar, I figured it would be a go idea to blend in and learn some information.

I noticed a drinking caravanner next to me. She was wearing a flannel shirt, a straw hat, and hide shirt.

"Unless you're looking for trouble I suggest you keep your eyes up and turning or I'll send them spinning!" She said threateningly.

It was then that I noticed I had been staring. Still the nerve of her. I barely kept my temper contained but, my mission was more important than my pride.

"So." I asked quietly "How come you're here and not on the road?"

"Bureaucracy." She replied "The NCR and its shit. 'Oh, the roads dangerous' they say. No shit the road is dangerous. Ranger Andy got one hell of a stick up his ass from working with the NCR so long, thinking the worst will always happen. It's as if he think Caesar himself is gonna come down with his army of glorified raiders and put us on crosses." She ranted.

My knuckles were starting to turn white. I had long passed my limit and I had been gripping the table with all my strength to keep from punching her. Insulting Caesar and the Legion had pushed me far off my limit.

Barely controlling my rage I managed to eek out, "Thank you, Miss,"

"Cass" She replied, "While we're at, who might you be?"

I thought for a moment, my real name would be way to suspicious. Then I thought of an idea.

"Ace, my name's Ace."

"Ace." She snorted. "That's a fine line between a really cringe name to a pretty cool, albeit unoriginal one."

Cass turned back away and continued drinking. I looked at the number of empty bottles in front of her.

" _How many bottles of whisky can one person drink?"_ I thought bewildered.

"Is there anything I can get you?" A voice in front of me asked

"Oh, ya, do you have any rooms or something?" I asked not really paying attention.

The barkeeper smiled, "I do actually, these caravanners are really stingy with caps. They won't even pay for a room. Just 20 caps for the night." She said excitedly.

"Thanks," I mumbled.

I walked over to my room. I looked like it was just a refurbished closet. I would sleep outside but, I noticed while walking to the outpost that rain clouds were moving in.

I kicked off my boots and took off my leather armor and fell on my bed. I fell asleep almost instantly. All the events that transpired in such a short amount of time was bewildering to me and I just needed to sleep it off for once.

I woke up earlier in the morning. I put on my gear and walked outside. It looked like the sun had only been out for a few hours. It appread to be seven or eight out. I walked to the back of the Barracks to cook some of my ant meat. After eating I decided to see what the ramps leading up to the roof.

"You." A female ranger said. "I need something from you."

"Me?" I asked surprised.

"Yes, you." The ranger replied, "Niptons gone quiet and I've been seeing flames coming from it for over a day now."

I smiled to myself. "It was the legion," I replied, pretending to be scared. "The Legion killed everyone, they said that they 'purified the town' and that they would be coming back for more towns! They only left me alive to spread the word!"

"DAMMIT!" She yelled. "Well, thanks for the help. Here take these caps and ammo, you'll need it if the legions threat are true." She said angrily.

" _I assure you those threats are true._ " I thought happily.

I walked back down the ramp and towards the headquarters building. I figured I could learn some information to send back to the legion. I decided the talk to the NCR officer standing behind the desk.

"Hello, there sir. Are you a caravaner, prosperity, traveler, ect.?

I stepped back. "Um, what?"

The officer agreed to be taken aback, "Oh, sorry you must be new here. Sorry about that, just trying to keep track of who goes through the outpost.

"Oh," I said skeptically. "Adventure I guess. I was just wondering if there is anything to do around here?"

"Talk to Ranger Andy. I'm sure he can think of something. Just go down the hallway to my side, he's in the last room." The officer said.

I walked down the hall to see a man in a bright brown jacket with sunglasses and a mustache.

"You're Ranger Andy I presume?" I asked questionable. "I heard you have jobs."

"I do, however, I'm not allowed to hire mercenaries. Unless out of the good of your heart and for some missing supplies you could help me with a problem. A minor ant problem." Andy said cryptically.

"Um, sure," I replied skeptically. "Is the NCR so backwards they can't deal with ANTS?"

"Great." Andy Smiled. "Ants have taken up on the highway a bit down the hill from here. We can't let the caravans go."

"Wait." I siged. "I already killed those ants on my way here. Besides you have troops. Can't you do it?" " _I'm supposed to be sabotaging the NCR, not helping them."_ I thought angrily.

"Great." He smiled. "The reason we can't send troops is because all the soldiers here a green. As for your reword some equipment just goes missing sometimes. Here take these." He handed over a service rifle, some ammo for it and some caravan lunchboxes.

"No problem." I responded. " _I least I learned something. This outpost is full of green soldier. I'm sure this information can come in handy."_

I sold my extra equipment and started to head towards the prison like Vulpes suggested.

If there's one thing you never get used to out here is the damn sun. I wiped some sweat off my brow, I had been walking for a while now and I was almost there. I noticed a town up ahead. I looked on my explorer map and noticed the town was called Primm. I didn't plan to stop there and continued down the road. There was an underpass that allowed me to completly skip the town and I continued down the road. The rest of the journey towards the correctional facility was uneventful besides some bloatflies.

I finally made it to the prison only to be interrupted by a guard.

"Stop right there! You walked into the wrong place!" A powderganger yelled.

"I'm here on business." I said coldly. I showed him the mark that Vulpus had given me.

"Oh, more legion guys." He said relieved, "Some of your buddies are already inside. Just head to the large building in the yard."

I nodded and went inside.

I walked in the building and upstairs to the office. I heard what sounded like an argument upstairs.

"Listen you know the deal. I got two rogue gangs I need to be taken care of. Than I will sign your deal!"

I walked up into the argument.

A legion centron looked at me before nodding.

"You must be the agent Vulpes sended."

I nodded "Yes Centron I am."

He smiled, "I'm sure you heard the argument I've had. Since Vulpes sent you I'm sure your competent. I need men on the field, this man here is Eddie." He pointed to the powderganger he was talking to previously. "He can help us but, he wants us to kill some rival gangs. Normally we wouldn't do this but, they have been causing trouble for us too. I need you to go to Primm and Goodsprings and kill the convicts there. I don't care how just get it done."

"Yes centron." I replied I figured this was also a good opportunity to gain support from these towns for the upcoming invasion.

I bowed to the centron. I decided I would start in Goodsprings.


	3. Mox ad Bellum

While scouting I noticed a large group of Powder Gangers making camp outside the town. It looked like they were preparing for a large-scale raid. "Strange, bandits don't tend to prepare sieges. Something must be going on." I thought curiously. I contemplated attacking them now but, I decided I would talk to the people of Goodsprings before attacking. Besides, attacking such large camps would be dangerous, if not suicidal. Taking a closer look it looked like the Powder Gangers were not as organized as thought. They made several different smaller camps instead of one large one and numerous other issues. Despite this, it was only a matter of time before they were ready.

"Of course. Organizing bunch of raiders to all join one siege will take a while. Impressive they can do this at all… For a bunch of profligates."

By midday, I had reached Goodsprings. It was a quiet little town seemingly unaffected by the Powerdergangers or radiation for that matter. The first building I noticed was a bar. "Does everyone outside the legion have to drink so much?" I thought confused. "Someone in there must know whats going on with the powder gangers.

"Look, if you don't hand over Ringo we're gonna burn this town to the ground!" A man yelled angrily.

I walked into the main area where the argument was happening. A woman in a gray shirt and skirt was arguing with a man in an armored Powder Ganger outfit.

"Listen Cobb we don't HAVE to do anything. Now, how about you get on out of here, you're scaring the customers!"

"Cobb! That's the leader of the rouge powder gangers. I can't act now, too dangerous here. I better lay low."

Cobb looked furious, his face turning from black to red. "They should be scared! I tell you what. Gives us Ringo within three days or we will kill you all!"

With that Cob angrily marched out of the bar. His last words ringing in everyone's ears.

The bartender stood in shock. "Why three days? Why burn down the town for this." She studdard.

A female redhead in leather armor walked up to the bartender.

"Listen Trudy we gotta stay calm. They are going to come back and we need to be ready." She said confidently.

"Sunny, I appreciate it but, we need to hand over Ringo. We can't fight them." Trudy said nervously.

I decided to speak up. The perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone just came up. Kill the Powder Gangers by gaining the support of Goodsprings. Perfect.

"The Powder Gangers are still preparing. The longer you wait to attack the longer the Powder Gangers have to prepare. Besides even if you do hand over Ringo they will burn the town down anyway,

Both Trudy and Sunny looked at me in shock.

"And just who the hell are you," Trudy said.

"Someone with an interest in killing Powder Gangers," I respond cryptically.

"He's right Trudy. We have to stand up for ourselves. We can fight them off if we prepare." Sunny said confidently.

I smiled at that. "She's brave. For a women at least."

Sunny looked at me. "Look, you seem to know your stuff and judging by your equipment you got experience. I say you and me go talk to Ringo up in the gas station to come up with a plan."

I figured she knew what she was doing.

"Okay, lead the way."

Sunny took me to a rundown gas station where Ringo lived. We entered the station to see Ringo pointing a gun at us.

"Oh, sorry." Ringo stuttered. "I didn't realize it was you Sunny." He looked at me. "Who is this?"

"He's here to help us. His name is." Sunny frowned, "Oh sorry, I didn't get your name."

"Just call me Ace."

"Got it. Sunny, what's going on here? I thought the plan was to just lay low until the Powder Gangers get bored and leave?" Ringo said confused.

"Change of plans." Sunny replied. "Cobb threatened to burn down the town in three days. We have to prepare. We need to act fast before they come to the town."

."I get it Sunny but, how are we supposed to do that? There are a lot of Powder Gangers out there."

"Divide and conquer. We have to attack their weak points. Interrupt supplies, attack the smaller groups still not joined with the main camps, kill leaders and prepare the defense of Goodsprings." I said.

Ringo nodded, "Good idea, I say we check out my caravan ruins first. It's only been about a day and a half since the raid. They probably haven't looted everything yet, or more likely they haven't decided how to split the loot yet. It's pretty far away from their mains camps too."

I nodded back at him. "Might be a good place to start. Let's go check it out. I assume you know how to handle a gun?"

Ringo smirked, "Of course, hell the main reason that Cobb hasn't come for me himself is that he's afraid I'll gun him down."

And with that we started to head off to the caravan ruins.

While walking towards the caravan site I noticed the dog from earlier was still following Sunny.

"So Sunny, what's with the dog?" I asked curiously.

"Chyanne? I adopted him as a puppy, he nearly grew up with me. And he makes a great war dog. We go gecko hunting together." She said warmly.

"Never thought I'd see someone so attached to a dog. Legion hound masters just tend to throw them at the enemy."

Ringo stopped suddenly and held up his hand.

"This is near the site." He said quietly. "Let's go to the top of that hill, we can get a better vantage point."

We climbed the hill overlooking the caravan ruins. It was a good vantage point with a clear view of the caravan along with several rocks for cover.

I peeked over a rock on the top of the hill. "Five in the open, another one in the old trailer and two more walking a bit further away," I whispered. "Terrains pretty open. We will have to fight them all at once. Sunny stay up here and snipe them, here take my service rifle. " I handed her my rifle. "Ringo and I will use our pistols to kill them behind the rocks near the the one in the trailer is armored that must be the leader. Sunny shoot through the window at him first. "

"Got it." Sunny and Ringo said simultaneously.

Ringo and I crawled to the rocks and prepared to fire. Sunny looked to see that we were in position and fired her first shot. The shot was true and nailed the armored Powder Gagner in the head. Ringo and I immediately began to fire. His .44 revolver and my 9mm submachine gun sprayed death onto the powder ganger.

Three of the Powder Gangers were mowed down immediately. Another was injured but the small caliber of my submachine gun meant he was still in the fight. A shot from Sunny changed that quickly. The last one managed to get back to behind the trailer, he was quickly joined by the other two who were patrolling the desert.

"Shit!" Ringo yelled, "Now what?"

"You flank them and pin them down. I'll go around and slice them with my machete." I replied.

Ringo nodded back and went to flank. Once he was in position I ran to the trailer and took cover. I sneaked back and slit the throat of the Powder Ganger in the back. The other untrained and undisciplined Powder Gangers didn't hear me or bother to look at them.

I swung Gaius up and brought it down on the Powder Gangers shoulder. His thin cloth prison outfit did little to protect him from my swing. The last one who was firing back at Ringo finally realized that I was behind him, but by then it was too late. He turned around only to see a gladius swinging at his face. The gladius slammed into his face, cutting deep. I pulled Gaius out of his mangled, scared face. And with that, the battle was over.

Ringo stopped firing and stood up form his cover and Sunny starting heading down her hill.

"Damn" Ringo shouted excitedly, "That was almost too easy, these Powder Gangers seem easy targets."

"I wouldn't get overconfident," I replied coldly. "These guys look way worse armed than the guys at the main camp."

"Hey, guys!" Sunny yelled. "I found a note on the leader!"

Ringo and walked into the trailer, the scene was a mess. The Powder Ganger had not only died from the shot but, had his head exploded. Pieces of flesh and pools of blood were scattered throughout the trailer. Yet, through it all Sunny seemed mostly unaffected. I looked back at Ringo, he seemed ok but, was obviously disgusted. I personally have seen much worse.

Sunny continued to impress me. I took the note a begin reading it.

"Guarding this blown up caravan must be the dullest job in all of Nevada, especially with these idiots who I'm supposed to be in charge of being here. Stupid kids think just because they have the outfit they are real Powder Gangers now and not just some raider wannabes that we recruited. You know what? Fuck this, Cobb was supposed to send a team over the carry the rest of the stuff back to camp while we guard them but, I still haven't seen anyone and now I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere guarding this dead brahmin. I'd have my own guys bring it but, if they knew we had a machine gun I can't guarantee they wouldn't kill me and run away with it. Lucky these kids are too stupid to ask why we are still here. I know the Convicts (stupid name) from Primm have been moving on our territory but, it's not that bad. Being able to carry this machine gun would probably help more than anything anyway.

"Wait, wait, wait." Sunny bewildered. "Did they say machine gun?"

"Ya, the caravan was carrying loads of junk. The guns in pretty bad condition but, it's still usable." Ringo replied.

I picked up the second page to see if there was any other information.

"Some of the guys said they saw a guy in a trench coat on the cliffs and that's why no one has come. They say there's some legend about a Mysterious Stranger who can kill people with one shot. Must be the sun getting to them. I don't want to deal with these stupid legends and I still haven't found the joker with the guitar who played that damn stupid tune."

"Weird." I thought to myself.

I noticed that Sunny and Ringo were no longer standing behind me. I looked behind me and noticed they were still both gawking at a machine gun in an opened create.

"Well," I said. "We better get this machine gun back to Goodsprings."

"Fucking hell this machine gun is heavy," Ringo complained. "How much longer?"

"Stop. Complaining." I said between labored breaths.

"Come on guys we gotta keep moving. With this machine gun, we can really give the Powder Gangers a big lead-filled surprise!" Sunny said enthusiastically.

"Easy for you to say," Ringo grunted. "You're not the one holding this thing."

The growl of a coyote could be heard nearby.

"Shhh!" I said. "Put the machine gun down, we're in coyote territory."

I had encountered coyotes many times during my missions as an explorer. For whatever reason, the local coyote population had remained largely unmutated except for a slightly tougher hide and increased aggressiveness.

We put the machinegun down. I pulled out my gladius and pistol. Ringo took out his revolver and hunting knife while Sunny kept her rifle pointed at the origin of the noise. I scanned the area for any coyotes but, they remained hidden.

"Guys." Sunny whispered. "I think we are near The Devil's Throat. Small coyote packs tend to make nests here."

The situation remained tense until a coyote leaped out from behind a small sand dune. It leaped towards Ringo who shot it mid-air. Another five came out all around us. Two charged directly towards me. I shot one of them through the eye. The other had closed in on me. I pistol whipped it and brought my gladius down upon its neck, finishing the creature.

I looked back to see Ringo beating the coyote with a baton he took from the Powder Gangers, he had a large bite mark on his other arm. Sunny's situation was different, she seemed to not even break a sweat killing the coyotes that attacked her.

Sunny turned around and smiled, "Well that was easy. These coyotes picked the wrong group to pick on."

"Speak." "For yourself Sunny," Ringo said between labored breaths.

Sunny walked towards Ringo and looked at his arms.

"Oh come on that's not that bad but, since your complaining Ace and I will carry the machine gun the rest of the way."

By the time we got back the sun had just begun its descent.

"Well, I guess we better start rallying the town. This machine gun won't do much good without unless we prepare a militia." Sunny said. "We should go talk to Trudy, she can convince the townspeople to rally behind our cause."

"A militia won't be much without proper equipment, we should see if the general store and town doctor have anything," Ringo added.

Sunny spoke up, "Well it looks like we got it all sorted out. I'll talk to Trudy and Easy Pete, Ringo will talk to the Doc and Ace will go to Chet."

Sunny began running to the saloon and turned back to look at us. "Come on people the Powder Gangers won't wait around while you guys stare into space!"

And with that Sunny ran into the saloon.

"That lady is crazy," Ringo mumbled under his breath and began running towards a house on a hill.

I started to head in the direction of the general store.

The general store was just a small wooden building. Inside there were multiple displays of some food and such. Behind the counter is a lightly tanned man with a beard, this must be Chet.

"Well howdy there, you looking to buy some supplies?" Chet says enthusiastically.

I could already tell I wouldn't like this man.

Knowing that time was short I decided to cut right to the chase, "The town is about to be attacked by a horde of Powder Gangers and we are preparing a defense. We need armor, weapons, and ammo if the town is to survive."

"Woah, woah, woah,." Chet interrupted, "That's a thousand cap investment you're talking about here. While I sympathize with the fight I still gotta run a business here."

"When the legion marches too Goodsprings I'm going to personally hang this man on a cross."

"Listen," I said at the end of my patience. "When the Powder Gangers overrun the town do you really think they are just going to let you keep running your store. No, they are going to loot and burn the store like they will with the rest of the town. I'd like to see you make good business then."

Chet sighed, "Fine, fine you've made your point I'll supply the town with whatever they when the battle starts I'm going to stay at the store. A man has got to protect his own."

"Of course you are." I thought while exiting the store.

"Well, how did it go with Chet?" Sunny asked walking up behind me.

"I managed to convince him to help," I said with some venom in my voice.

Sunny laughed, "Judging by your tone I'm guessing it didn't go that well. I figured that he might be a bit stubborn but I knew he would cave in."

"Hey, guys!"

We both looked up to see Ringo running down the hill from the Doc's house.

"Good news." Ringo said happily, "The Doc said he would help us out when the battle begins with his medical supplies."

"Well, that's everyone." Sunny said cheerily, "I guess the only thing left to do is get the defensive built and to keep harassing the Powder Gangers."

I looked at the sky, the sun was about to be down and darkness would cover the wasteland.

"It's pretty late, we should get to inside and sleep for tomorrow."

Ringo nodded, "Ace is right, it's going to be too dark to do anything else."

"Right!" Sunny said excitedly, "Now we sleep, tomorrow, we take the fight to the Powder Gangers!"


End file.
